URLs are what we type to go to a specific website. This has pretty much been the way of the internet since its early days, and while we are still continuing to use URLs in this day and age, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the right way. In fact Google thinks that URLs can be problematic and that they should be changed.Speaking to WIRED, Chrome’s engineering manager Adrienne Porter Felt was quoted as saying, “People have a really hard time understanding URLs. They’re hard to read, it’s hard to know which part of them is supposed to be trusted, and in general I don’t think URLs are working as a good way to convey site identity.”
It is true how sometimes URLs can be confusing, especially when URL shorteners are used, and when they are also used by hackers in phishing scams, where they point users towards a URL that looks like a URL used by their banks, and some who are less technically inclined might actually fall for them. Browsers such as Chrome have attempted to try and protect users by displaying huge warning pages that prevents users from moving forwards unless they explicitly state they want to.
There are also website certifications that shows whether or not a website is secure, but like we said, there are some users who do not know or understand these things, and might miss them. That being said while Google wants to change URLs, they do not have an idea of what that change could look like.
According to Parisa Tabriz, director of engineering at Chrome, “I don’t know what this will look like, because it’s an active discussion in the team right now. But I do know that whatever we propose is going to be controversial. That’s one of the challenges with a really old and open and sprawling platform. Change will be controversial whatever form it takes. But it’s important we do something, because everyone is unsatisfied by URLs. They kind of suck.”
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